The left in the west is very good at showing solidarity with Palestinians. And in 2017 this is an important function, given the terrible plight of Palestinians facing Israeli state aggression. I personally welcome acts of solidarity with those resisting Zionist oppression. And I am inspired by the image of 17-year-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi hitting an Israeli soldier, and photos of her looking steadfast and determined while handcuffed in a court setting.
Yet the way the left frames its views on the Palestinian struggle, while at the same time mostly ignoring other conflicts in the Middle East, leaves me feeling uneasy. Several things irk me in regards to how the western left views the various conflicts and actions of political actors in the Middle East.
First, whereas the left continues to give heightened attention to the Palestinian cause, why does this same left seem ignore other conflicts in this region of the world? From the grotesque subjugation of women in the Islamic Gulf states, through to the rich Sunni states funding and support of near-genocidal campaigns against Shia Muslims, and now the crackdown on protesters by theocratic state forces in Iran, the left’s silence on these issues is deafening. So, why is this the case?
Second, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is for much of the left a black and white issue of oppressed versus oppressor. Whereas the left often goes to extreme lengths to contextualise through a relativist gaze other conflicts in the Middle east, the Palestinian struggle is presented as an easily digestible narrative of good versus evil. So, what is going on here?
Israel versus the Palestinians - a simplistic narrative?
For the western left, “Israel and Israelis bad; Palestine and Palestinians good”. Therefore, the logic is to “punish the Israelis” – through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and through an enforced pariah status – and, at the same time, to hail all forms of Palestinian resistance. Sounds good? Unfortunately, such an over-simplified worldview ends up distorting and deforming acts of solidarity from western leftists aimed at oppressed peoples in the Middle East.
The western left often gives a cartoonish presentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which presents the majority of Israeli Jewish people as the enemy of the oppressed Palestinians. Here, a failure to differentiate the Israeli state from wider Israeli civil society leads to a soft anti-Semitism being presented. The Israeli state, not the majority of Israeli people, should be the target of those wishing to show solidarity with Palestinians.
The idea that Jewish Israelis are collectively a reactionary people, who deserve to be ostracised and boycotted, is promoted by large sections of the western left, as well as by Islamists and Arab nationalists. The reality is that Jewish people are not in any way a homogenous group. So, for example, Jews in Israel are divided by economic status, class, and ideological outlook.
The majority of Jewish-Israelis also face subjugation in terms of living in a nation with significant degrees of inequality and where an unwritten racial code exists which leads to discrimination of Jewish-Israeli people of colour. Yet the oppression of many Jewish Israelis does not register with most western leftists, as this conflicts with their black and white narrative of Zionist oppression.
The reality is that liberation for the Palestinian people will only be possible through progressive Palestinians continuing to make connections with those Jewish-Israelis who seek an end to the Jewish-Arab sectarian divide in this part of the world. For class against class (99% versus the 1%) rather than Jew against Arab or Arab against Jew.
As well as the left’s lack of nuance when discussing events in Israel-Palestine, this same left largely ignores other conflicts in this part of the world. This leads to a situation of selective solidarity.
Problems of selective solidarity
Showing solidarity with the Palestinian people resisting oppression is a must for us leftists in the global north. But the failure to build solidarity with other oppressed peoples in the Middle East - from the victims of Saudi Arabian state violence aimed at Shia Muslims, to the genocidal acts of the Turkish state against Kurds - points to a left entrapped within liberal ideology.
A rebellion is happening right now in Iran. Yet the western left is generally silent on these events. Saudi Arabia is carrying out a war of aggression against Shia Muslims in Yemen. And the Saudi Arabian elites targeting of the Houthi rebels in Yemen is shaped by a pathological hatred of Shia Muslims. Yet again, the western left remains generally silent on the atrocities of the Saudi Islamic kingdom.
Whereas the western left is always quick off the mark to condemn the repressive actions of the Israeli state, this same left is almost completely silent on the reactionary actions of other Middle Eastern states. Where is the condemnation of the Mullahs and thugs of the Iranian regime? Where are calls for solidarity for the Iranian protesters?
What’s behind how the left decides who to give solidarity to in the Middle East?
Solidarity is at the heart of progressive politics. But ideology inevitably shapes how those of the left frame and direct acts of support for oppressed peoples. In terms of ideology, the main ideologies that come into play are identity politics and standpoint theory.
The influence of identity politics leads to a desire to define the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of an “oppressed people” versus an “oppressed people”. A concrete enemy is conceptualised, not just in terms of the Israeli state, but in terms of the Israeli people collectively. Equally, Palestinians are conceptualised as oppressed as a whole. Despite the complexities of the various conflicts in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict provides an easily digestible narrative for leftists.
Standpoint theory, which gives epistemological privilege to certain subjugated groups, adds to the shaping of a black and white narrative of the oppressed Palestinian versus the oppressor Israeli Jew. The very real subjugated position of Palestinians is used to elevate the standpoint of Palestinians, and to therefore engage uncritically with a “Palestinian worldview”. That is, standpoint theory allows for the western left to take an uncritical stance towards the corrupt and politically bankrupt Palestinian leaderships.
This Palestinian leadership utilizes the call for BDS to deflect from their own failings, as well as to distract from the growing levels of dissatisfaction of Palestinians towards the Palestinian political class – including both the Islamists and Arab nationalist wings of the Palestinian leadership.
For many western leftists, the world is a black and white one where certain states and peoples are reactionary, and other states and peoples are progressive due to their subjugated position. For example, western leftists tend to view Muslims as collectively oppressed, and therefore view any criticisms of the ideology of Islam, or of Islamic regimes or groups, as being inevitably tainted or defined by Islamophobia and western chauvinism. And with the same identitarian/standpoint logic, Israelis are viewed collectively as an oppressor and reactionary people, who need to be punished through sanctions and boycotts.
“Check your ideology”
Acts of solidarity are intrinsic to the praxis of the left. But actions of solidarity can be distorted by ideology. Standpoint theory and identity politics help to shape a simple but distorted narrative on the quagmire of the Middle East. That is, these ideological frameworks act to obfuscate the complex dimensions of religious, state, ethnic and class conflicts in this region. Time to not merely act, and rather to start thinking as well. The left must be self-critical of the theories, frameworks and ideologies it uses, and must examine how such frameworks shape, and at times distort, our world outlook. “Check your ideology”.
